This invention relates to the extraction of desired constituents from minerals and is particularly, concerned with the extraction of phosphoric acid and metal values from phosphate rock.
When phosphate rock is acidulated for the production of phosphoric acid, and a liquid/solids separation is performed on the resulting slurry, an appreciable proportion of the phosphoric acid is lost with the solids. A similar proportion of uranium contained in the slurry is also lost with the solids, thus reducing the yield, if a uranium extraction is to be performed.